Rule 1 -- Sometimes You Need To Let Go
by DaydreaminAri
Summary: At every end, there is a new beginning. A time to start over. When Cat comes to NYC to start over, it takes everything she has not to break. But in the end she realizes she has to follow her heart, and we all know how that always ends up.
1. Chapter 1

"Yes. Yea that's possible. Sure." I say over the phone to the man calling. A red headed woman walks out of the elevator and over towards my desk.

"Sure thing sir. Anything else?" I ask when she comes over and looks at me with a smile. I hold up a finger to tell her I will be with her in one second. She had a visitors pass on her left jacket pocket.

"Ok. Have a nice day." I say hanging up the phone and smiling at her. "What can I do for a pretty woman like you?" She was wearing beige skinny jean cargo pants with a black short sleeve that fit her nicely. Over that was an army green jean jacket rolled up to her elbows. I look her up and down.

She blushes a little bit. "I'm Cat Valentine. I'm going to be working over there." She says pointing at the desk with a computer in the opposite side of our cubical area. It was a big square with a desk in each corner.

"Oh… Well in that case… that was not flirting." I chuckle nervously.

"It's ok." She says taking her backpack off of her shoulder and putting it in the corner behind her desk.

"Well… I'm Special Agent Robbie Shapiro… Beck works over there," I point to the opposite corner from where I am. "And Jones, our team leader, works over there." I point to the right of me.

"Ok. Where is Jones? I have to go get cleared." She explains.

"Right here." Jones says walking briskly in behind her. "Welcome to the FBI." He had on his usual dress attire. Black slacks and a dress shirt and tie. He would roll up his sleeves to his elbows and only wear a jacket when we leave.

"Hi." She says. "I'm Cat Valentine."

"Probationary Agent Cat Valentine." He corrects handing me a badge and a gun in a black leather holster. He throws on his black sports jacket.

"We've got a murder in 32 street. Let's go." Jones says grabbing his gray and black backpack from under his desk. He slides his holster onto the right side of his pants throws the necklace chain with the badge over his neck. We all follow and Beck meets us by the elevator.

"Robbie, you've got Cat today. Show her the ropes. You're the senior field agent." I nod and walk out of the elevator when it stops and over to the cars. Every team was given two cars, both black dodge chargers. Jones throws me the keys from next to the elevator where the keys were kept.

I catch them with one hand and slid into the front seat. Cat gets in the passenger side and straps in. I click the buckle and start the car. Jones pulls out first and I follow him down through the New York City traffic. We finally turn on the lights that are in the front grill. Cars start moving out of the way and in a matter of minutes were in the middle of 32 streets. We park the cars in front of an apartment. The NYPD was standing outside waiting for us to show up.

Jones walks over to the chief and is briefed on what happened. I duck under the yellow tape and hold it up for Cat. I take her in with Beck. There were police all throughout the rooms, taking pictures, bagging evidence, and questioning neighbors.

"So what happened?" I stop and ask one of the officers taking a picture of a body in the middle of the living room floor.

"Looks like a robbery gone wrong. We found some partial prints on the backdoor. Gunshot wound to the head. A couple of jewelry boxes were raided too. Not much is left in them but you can take a look if you want. They're in the bedroom." The officer says pointing down the hall.

"Thanks." I wave for Cat and Beck to follow me into the bedroom but Beck stays. Books and magazines were scattered across the floor and the dresser was raided. I look over at Cat.

"So… Where did you work before this?" I ask her.

"LAPD." She answers taking the camera and putting the strap around her neck. She holds the camera up to her eye and takes a picture of the dresser and then of the books scattered around the floor.

Beck walks in. "We found brass." He says holding up a .9 millimeter casing. Cat walks over and takes a picture if the brass in his hand then walks back over to me.

"LAPD… Why'd you leave?" I ask her.

"A co-worker and I got serious… then things went downhill. I just needed to get out of there. Get as far away as I could." She says looking down at her shoes.

"Oh… I'm sorry." I turn and walk out of the room and Cat followed.

"It's ok. Things happen. Talking helps." She explains to me. "I stop and turn to her. She looks up from the camera and at me. Neither of us say anything. I don't know what I felt at that moment but there was something. The way she looked at me, the way I looked back at her. I just couldn't forget what happened this morning.

I speak up before anything gets too awkward. "Listen… we got off to a bad start. I'm not usually like that. I was a bit flirty and I'm sorry. Can we start over?"

She smiles at me. "Yea sure."

"I'm Special Agent Robert Shapiro." I say sticking out my hand.

"Cat Valentine. Probationary Agent." She says smiling and taking my hand to shake.

Later that day Beck goes back with Jones to HQ and Cat and I go follow a lead. We drive down to the East side and to Franz Sigel Park. It was a small park, had a baseball field, a basketball court and a playground or two. There were a lot of nice walking paths and most of it was shaded, except for the fields. It was just a fun, nice, peaceful place to sit and relax. We park the car on the side of the road.

"So what are we doing here?" Cat asks.

"There's a barbeque on the baseball field for the little league teams. One of the fathers was a good friend of our victim." I explains to her. She simply nods in understanding.

We continue to walk for a little bit longer until we get to the field. The barbecue was sectioned off by yellow tape. Kids were running around screaming and laughing. Parents were taking with beers in their hands.

"You know… one day I wouldn't mind being one of these dad's…" I sigh with a smile. I look over at her. She smiles but doesn't say anything. We continue of and duck under the tape. I walk over to a skinny man in jeans and a t-shirt with a baseball cap.

"Hey. Is Joey Caneto here?" I ask showing him my badge.

"Yea. He's over by the grill. It's his shift to cook." He says pointing over by the dugout to a black grill.

"Thanks!" Cat says to the man.

We walk over to the grill and my phone starts to ring. I answer it.

"Get out of there." Jones says quickly over the phone.

"Why? What's wrong?" I look over at Cat who is staring at the man by the grill. She follows his gaze to a black box by one of the light poles. She starts to look worried and turns to me.

"Robbie! Just get out. Get as far away as you—" Cat tackles me to the ground as the box by the light pole explodes. She was on top of me and my phone was a good 5 feet away. I look into her eyes and smile slightly.

"You ok?" I whisper softly.

She simply nods. "You?"

"Yea." I say moving a little bit. We sit there for a good 30 seconds. "What are you still doing on top of me?" I whisper to her again.

"I'm protecting you." She explains.

"Oh… the bomb went off about 1 minute and a half ago… I think I'm good…" She nods a little bit and rolls off of me.

"Sorry…" She replies.

"It's cool. Don't worry about it." I say.

Later that night we were finishing the paperwork for the case. They caught Joey Caneto an hour after the bombing and he gave up his "friends". I finish on my final report and turn off my computer. I open my desk drawer and take out my badge and gun. I clip the holster onto the right side of my pants and the badge on the other side. I tap the touch button on my desk light and it switches off.

Cat stands up and finishes packing her bag. She turns off her desk light and throws her backpack over her shoulder. I cut her off and stand in front of her.

"You want to grab some dinner?" I ask her.

She smirks. "I don't think so…we're starting over remember?" She tries to go around me but I step in front of her again.

"It's too bad. It would have been great." I say softly with a smile.

She bites her lip thinking but it was sexy. She leans in towards my ear and whispers, "You have no idea…" With that, she turns and walks away without looking back. I couldn't help but stare.

**I'M BACK!**

**Sorry it took so long but with field hockey and hw and piano i was just so busy. But the end of the season is nearly here so i will be updating more haha. **

**I'm kinda taking a bit of something the Tony/Ziva relationship in NCIS and putting it in here. I am obsessed with that show and since Cote de Pablo left, I've been dying. for those of you who dont know, the main character Gibbs has a list of rules he follows by. Not many of them fit into real life (#4,#5, #8, #15, and most of all #51 are ones that can be used in life, look them up.) and so i made a list of my own. They are all always something I've followed by my entire life, i just decided to put a number to them. **

**So, this story is called ****_Rule #1 - Sometimes You Need To Let Go. _****I cant decide********whether my number one should be that or Sometimes - you're wrong. I think they both are very important. You cant hold to to everything forever, it will end up killing you. I would know haha. But then again, sometimes - your wrong... And that is just as important if not more...**

**Anyway, back on topic. I called this story ****_Rule #1 - Sometimes You Need To Let Go _****because my #1 rule is that (more than willing to share the other 20 or so if your interested but i know none of you are. PM me if you wanna know... haha). This is going to be a good story but it may piss some of you off because you will have to wait for a BIG part. If you've ever seen NCIS and the Tony/Ziva (Tiva) relationship, it's all sexual and emotional tension, and i think that's what made me like it so much. It was a giant cliff hanger. And finally 8 years later, we get what we want... sorta...**

**Ok back to Cabbie. Lol sorry about that. Well yea... Review and sorry about my ranting session... i don't get to do it often.**


	2. Chapter 2

Today was going to be light. Mostly paperwork. Which sucked but it had to be done sometime.

It was a Friday morning and I got in about 15 minutes early. I turn on my desk light and start to shuffle through the stack of reports and files on my desk. Jones walks in about 5 minutes later with a cup of coffee in hand. He puts it on his desk and starts his computer, then grabs his coffee and walks away.

The elevator door opens and miss red head walks in. "Hey!" I say.

"Hey." She smiles and sits down at her desk.

"So how was your night?" I ask her.

"Ok. How about you?" She asks me.

"Well I went out to dinner. Alone." I said and looked at her. She chuckled.

Jones comes walking in. "Come on. Let's go. We got a murder on 34th and 7th."

"In the middle of Home Depot?" I ask him.

"In the parking lot." He says bluntly. "You've got Cat again. Let's get this thing done."

We head out and to the cars. Traffic wasn't as bad as the other day but it sucked. After 10 minutes of blasting by cars with the sirens on, we pull up to the Home Depot in Queens. I park the car and get out with Cat. She grabs the camera and I grab the kit with the gloves, first aid kit, window puncher and other stuff. I walk over to a body next to a car.

"So…" I say with Cat by my side taking pictures of the victim.

"Caucasian male, around 25, wallet and ID missing. Looks like a mugging." One of the uniforms explains. There was a pool of blood under his torso.

"Thanks." I say and squat down. "So… What's your story?" I whisper to myself.

"Are you talking to dead bodies now?" Cat asks me and laughs.

"Everyone has a story. Dead or alive. Life is like a book. It has a beginning, middle and end and sometimes, even the dead can tell us something. The expression on their face, the position of body, it can tell how they felt when they were killed. What they were thinking. Sometimes even who did it." I explain staring at the body on the ground. "Amazing isn't it?"

She looks at me. "Never thought about it that way… So what's it telling you?" She asks squatting down next to me. At first I thought she was making fun of me, but when she got down, I knew she wasn't.

"Can you see that look in his eye? The look on his face?" She stares at the man's head. "He doesn't look scared. There's something happy about it…"

"Yea… you're right… He doesn't look scared…" She thinks.

"That means he either knew his attacker or he was shot from behind. Seeing as though we found him on his face, he was shot from behind and fell forward." I say pointing to the bullet hole in his back.

"The bullet nicked his heart. Instant kill." The medical examiner says from behind then goes back talking to Jones.

"So we have a mugging. Now I know this isn't the best example of them being able to tell a story but it's a start…" I scan his prints quickly and shout to Jones. "Our vic's name is James Connor. No record. No family either."

"Don't you think it's sad that he's dead and nobody is here to care… After this, he will just be forgotten…" She sighs.

"Well he probably has friends… extended family… Other people." I tell her trying to make her feel better.

"Yea… I guess your right…" She gets up and walks away.

The rest of the day was slow. We went through evidence, talked to some people. The next day we found the guy. He was dosed up on heroin in some back ally. We found his DNA on the vic and picked him up after that. He confessed saying he needed the money because he was in withdraw.

7 o'clock comes around the next day and Cat and I are sitting at our desks. She starts getting her stuff ready and finally shuts off her desk light.

"Where you headed?" I ask her.

"Just gonna go home. Get some stuff done." She informs me before throwing her backpack over her shoulder and walking to the elevator. I jump up and run over next to her. She steps into the elevator and I follow.

"So… earlier you seemed depressed… Why?" I ask turning to her.

"It just seemed a bit depressing." She simply replies.

"Come on Cat. I know it's only been a few days, but I know you better than that. What's wrong?"

"Nothing Robbie. I said it was nothing!" She says stepping out of the elevator as soon as it opens and walking fast to her car. I knew I shouldn't have pushed. I should have been nicer. Obviously something was wrong.

About 2 hours after Cat left, I finished my report. It was late, probably about 9 o'clock. I walk out of the elevator and onto the street. There was a nice coffee shop that I liked to go to down the street, so I figured I'd go grab a cup. It was nice out. There were some clouds but I didn't think it would rain so I walked. I continue down the street, stopping at ever corner waiting for the walking light to turn. Half way there is started to rain, not hard but not a drizzle either. The coffee shop was up ahead, right next to a little Italian restaurant. I stuffed my hands into my pocket and hugged my shoulders up to cover my neck.

The Italian restaurant was nice. It had the full wall look though glass so you could see inside. Tables were lines up right next to the window. It had to be a nice view. I continue towards the coffee shop but stop halfway across the see through glass wall.

A red head was sitting at a table across from a man. It was Cat. The man was about my age. He had light brown hair and green eyes. He was in a dress shirt and a tie. Cat was dressed up in a dress. They were talking. I could see the hurt on her face. The man reached across the table and gently placed his hand on hers. He takes her hands into his and a large smile comes across Cat's face.

I stood in astonishment. I know it's only been a few days, but I knew there was something there. Something between us…

The man just stared at her as she spoke, taking in each and every word. He squeezed her hand and she smiled again.

The rain formed small puddles and the new drops were hitting the water. The little ripples circled out towards the edge of the puddles. The New York lights were glistening on the puddles and the horns and tire sounds of the city made it very calming.

I looked back at the window, seeing the Cat and the man smiling and laughing and it tore apart my heart. I turned and looked down at my feet. With a sigh I turned and walked away, back down the street the way I came. As soon as I got back to the office I got in my car and drove home. I walked into the apartment, the anger raging inside of me. I pick up the closest thing to me, a book, and throw it at the wall. It hit and spread open before falling to the ground.

"What did I do wrong?!" I say picking up the book and throwing it on the couch just as hard as I did at the wall.

**Well… Here you go, Madison. CAN I PLEASE KNOW NOW! You promised… sort of.**

**Well the next chapter is going to be good… I don't know when I will put it up but I should soon. Hope you liked it! **

**REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey Robbie?" Cat says looking at me the next morning. I was too busy to look at her.

"What." I say.

"Oh… sorry… But can you help me with something?" Cat asks with a smile.

I shut off my computer and get up. "Sorry. I have some stuff to do. Ask Beck or Jones." Then I walk away. I walk towards the men's bathroom knowing she won't follow me in there. Last night was just rough. I couldn't wrap my head around why I was so hurt by it. I've know the girl for days! And now all of the sudden I see her with another guy and I want to put my fist through the wall? It just didn't make sense!

I stand in front of the mirror leaning up against the sink counter. I turn on the water and cup my hands under it before leaning down and slashing the water on my face. I do it again and look up at myself watching the water drip off.

Jones comes in and hands me a paper towel. "Let's go. You and Cat are going to go look at a drug ring site for us." He takes me arm and pulls me out of the bathroom before pushing me ahead of him. "What's on your mind?! She just asked for some help!" He yells at me.

"I'm just… never mind." I say.

"You better never mind me. Get your head back in the game Rob." He says seriously and walks away. I follow him back to the squad room and grab my back pack, gun and badge.

On the Car ride to the docks, where all of the ware houses are, it was silent. We stop by a black van off the side of the street. Jones gets out and opens the sliding door to the back of the van and goes in. We follow and shut the door behind us.

"What's this about?" Cat asks.

"Would you just wait a minute? Maybe he will tell us." I say obnoxiously.

"What the hell Robbie." She says.

"Will you two just shut up!? I don't care what's going on. Listen and get your head back in the game!" Jones says bluntly.

"Ok. So we have a major drug ring in NYC as you know. Some stuff has been going on and we got a tip saying they have something going on today. We have had surveillance on the 9 ware houses for the past week. There has been some activity in the Warehouse 6. Go check it out. Go in if you can find a spot to hide." He pauses and looks at Beck who was also sitting in the back. There were computers in front of them and walkie talkies.

"Here take these. Put them in your ears. You can hear us but we can't hear you." He says handing us little ear pieces. We put them in and test them and Jones hands us two bullet proof vests. We dress up and put on a thigh holster.

When we are ready Jones pats us both on the back and says, "Now whatever the hell is going on, knock it off! Get the job done." He says pushing us out of the van.

We head to the warehouse completely silent. I knew I was a bit of a dick before but I was just hurt. We continue on until we reach the warehouse. Cat and I go up to the door and open it the slightest amount. We both look in and see that there is no clear hiding place.

"Just stay out there for now." Jones says into the earpiece. We nod even though he can't see or hear us. Cat's hand slips a little bit and the door shuts making a relatively loud sound.

"Get out of there." Jones says calmly. Cat stands there.

We can hear the footsteps coming towards us.

"GET OUT! GET OUT OF THERE! GET OUT!" I hear in my ear piece. Jones was screaming it. Cat just looks at me as we hear a blood curdling scream from a woman. Cat takes one look back as if to say she was sorry, before running into the ware house. I couldn't do anything. I ran after her trying to stop her but she was already inside. I run in to the warehouse after when I see 6 men standing around with guns pointing at us. Cat looks at me and mouths something. There was a woman taped to a chair in the far corner.

Cat runs over to a man, sliding like a baseball player would, trying to make it to home plate. She takes one of the men out by the knee's avoiding a bullet. He falls to the ground with a yelp. I run in and throw a punch, landing it on the jaw of a big guy. He stumbles back ward and grabs both of my arms by the elbow throwing me to the side. I slide a few feet away before getting up to go help Cat.

3 men were surrounding her, none with guns. She grabs one of the by the wrist and her other arm hooks under the man's armpit. She turns her back to him and in one fluent move flips him over her shoulder and leaves him screaming on the ground. She goes after the next one. She takes his wrist and spins his arm, smacking down on his elbow. He falls onto his face and she steps on his back.

A guy comes up behind me and puts me in a neck lock. I do a quick elbow to the rib cage before grabbing his arms and flipping him over my back. As soon as I stand up a foot flies into my face sending me 3 feet back. A warm liquid starts to stream down from my nose and my lip was obviously split. I get up and wipe the blood off with the back of my hand before diving through the guys legs. He falls onto his back and I get on top of his chest. I throw a punch smacking his head to the side. I felt the air push out of his lungs and I knew that he was out cold.

I look up at Cat who is slicing though a group of 4 guys. Two of the men were out on the floor. I get up and run over to Cat. She had a cut on her lip but she seemed to be kicking their asses. I grab a man around his neck and sweep his leg out from under him, then send a single punch to his nose. Cat was in the fighting position and throws two punches nailing one of the men in the stomach and again in the jaw. She pivots and kicks the man behind her in the stomach. It was like she was aware off all surroundings. Both men go stumbling back and I grab the one closets to me. He punches me twice near the temple and splits the skin near my eye brow. I grab his shoulder and the back of his shirt and throw him off to the side. Cat takes the last man and grabs his elbow and wraps her arm around the back of his head grabbing his shirt. She pushes him down a little bit and when he comes back up she pivots pushing her hip into his groin area. She swings her foot up a little bit and backs behind the outside of his leg throwing the man over her hip.

With all of the men on the floor crying like little girls, we rush over to the woman. She was crying hysterically in the chair and cat and I help her out. There was a table next to us which had a role of paper towels on it. I grab one and hand it to Cat. She wipes the blood off of her lip and I finish getting the duck tape off of the woman. She gets up and turns around wiping her face, but as she turns I see the knife in her hand. She spins around slicing me across the cheek. It wasn't deep, I could feel that. I grab her wrist and twist her around forcing her to drop the knife as a shot is fired. The woman drops to the floor silent.

I look up to see Jones with a gun in hand about 50 feet away. He lowers the gun and stares at us. We walk forward. "Get out means GET OUT!"

"She was screaming! What were we supposed to do! Leave her to DIE! WE DIDN'T KNOW!" Cat yells ack at him.

"WATCH IT VALENTINE!" He yells back and cat storms past him and out of the warehouse.

The drive back was silent but it got a lot louder when we got back to the building. We park the car and head to the elevator. I press the button and she follows behind me. I press the button on the inside, but the doors didn't shut. I press it again, but it still didn't work. I slam on the button over and over again pissed off because of what happened.

"Watch it Rob. You're gonna hurt yourself." She says.

"WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT!?" I yell. She almost got us killed.

"What?!" She says a bit more calmly than I did.

"You know what! We were given specific orders not to go in! Not to engage! And what did you do?! You went in any way! You were the first one to throw a punch!" I shout.

"What was I supposed to do?! There was a so called innocent person in there! WAS I JUST SUPPOSED TO LET HER DIE! I'm sorry I didn't know she was with them! I'm sorry that I dragged you into that warehouse! BUT I AM NOT SORRY I TRIED TO SAVE A PERSONS LIFE! AND I WILL NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR THAT!" She shouts at me as the elevator doors open to out floor. She storms out and to the cubicles. I walk to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee and sit down for a little bit to cool off. After I calmed down a little bit I got up and headed to the bathroom. I throw my cup out on the way.

I stand in front of the mirror with a paper towel in hand cleaning up the bleeding wounds. The bathroom door opens and someone steps in. Then I hear the click of a lock, which forces me to look.

Cat was standing at the door. "This is the men's bathroom you know." I say rudely.

"What the hell crawled up your butt?!" She says bluntly. "All of today you've treated me like crap. What did I do?!"

"Yesterday! You told me you were going home!"

"SO?" She says.

"So… you were with a guy. You went out to dinner with someone…"

"So now I have to tell you everything I do? You need to know my every move?" She says stubbornly.

"You know that's not what I mean…"

"Then what do you mean Robbie!? I went out! SO WHAT!" I screams at me.

"I mean that after the few days we've gotten to know each other, AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO FEELS ANYTHING!"

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!" She insists.

"I'M SAYING THAT I CANT HELP BUT FEEL SOMETHING WHEN I'M AROUND YOU! BUT YOU DON'T SEEM TO FEEL ANYTHING!" I shout.

She was quite.

"I'm tired of pretending…" I say still frustrated.

She pauses for a second, "So am I…"

We stand there staring at each other still angry but we don't say anything. I let out a sigh and walk past her about to leave her standing there alone when she stops me.

"I'm sorry…" She says forcing me to turn to her.

I stare.

She looks down at her feet. "That guy was my brother… He's the only one who can make me feel better... especially at times like this. We went out to dinner because he came up for a business trip. He lives in Florida."

"Times like what?" I ask sympathetically.

"My mom had cancer for about 6 years. She died yesterday." I stare at her feeling completely horrible.

"I'm so sorry Cat… I… I didn't…" I couldn't find the words. I knew there was nothing I could say to apologize correctly so I just stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. She tucked her head into the crease of my neck and ran her hand up and down the one side of my chest.

"Thanks…" She says.

**Well update! Lol! I'm stuck at home on a Friday night because i have no life haha. Well i was watching Castle but then my butt fell asleep so i figured i should get up and do something. So i got up and ate dinner, then being the lazy butt that i am, layed down in bed and typed half of this. Then i got up and sat at my desk again to finish the rest and my butt fell asleep again... Weird and a bit TMI but yea...**

**REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4

**So I reread what I've written and it was kind of boring… sorry about that. I threw in some stuff to make it a bit interesting but it wasn't like my other stories. I didn't have the interrogation scenes, I didn't have the confessions, I didn't have the "ah-ha!" moments. So starting from this chapter they're going to have more of that stuff haha. I hope you like it more lol!**

"Our vic's name is Donald Roane. Served in the navy for 7 years and went off to the union as a construction worker." Jones explains.

"Blunt force trauma to the head causing a deep laceration… I'll let you know more when I get him back to the lap." Our forensic pathologist, Kate Bennings, says.

"Thanks Kate." I say walking off over towards the dock with Jones and Cat.

"Blake Wilder found him. He was fishing, knowing he probably wouldn't catch anything, just as a stress reliever. Anyway, he caught on to something heavy and pulled up our vic. Found this in his pocket." Jones shows us a gold coin in an evidence bag.

"It's a gamblers anonymous coin." Jones tells us and walks away to go talk to the man who found him.

"So maybe he fell off the wagon and owed someone money and didn't pay off…?" Cat suggests.

"Body ends up in the east river with something bashed over his head because he owes someone money… You know what I think? Mob hit!" I say jokingly but serious in a way too.

"A mob hit? Come on Robbie…" She says turning away and walking towards the our car.

I follow. "Yea! Think about it!"

We get back to the station and park the car. "It wasn't a mob hit."

"I'm willing to bet 10 bucks it was." I say seriously. Cat just stares at me for a second thinking.

"Ok. I'll take that bet." She says stepping into the elevator. She extends her hand and I take it. We shake on it.

"Still don't think it's a mob hit." She says quietly.

"I still think it is." I return.

We step out of the elevator and walk towards the squad area. Beck walks over and hands us a file. "Not a mob hit." He says.

Cat looks over at me and extends her palm. "Pay up, Shapiro."

"But… fine." I say reaching into my back pocket and pulling out a wallet. "Are you sure?" I ask Beck and he nods. I place a ten in Cat's hand and she stuffs it in her pocket.

"But Mr. Roane did make a withdraw of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars about 3 weeks ago. He wrote a check payable to William Beko. Beko, back in '77 was arrested and spent 10 years in federal prison for assault." Beck explains.

"Thanks." I say leaving towards the elevator.

We have some uniforms bring in William Beko and put him in interrogation. I walk in through the door with Cat. Beko was sitting in the iron chair with his hands folder in the table waiting. He looks up at us.

"What do you have me in here for!? I've been waiting 2 hours."

I sigh and look down at the file in front of me. I flip though it and find a piece of paper. I take it out and slap in to the table infront of him.

"Do you recognize this check?" I ask looking at his facial expressions.

"Of course, It's from Donny Roane, so?" He says looking directly at me.

"Mr. Roane was found dead in the east river this morning." Cat says standing next to me.

Beko looks down at his hands and shakes his head slightly before looking up at me. "Poor guy… What happened?"

"He was hit over the head and killed. Now back to the money. What was it for?" I ask.

"He bought my bar down town, The Winchester Arms. He was practically raised there. His grandfather owned the place. He'd bring him in every Saturday and let him help and hang around. Then when his grandfather died back in '96, I bought the place. I kept its name and I kept it a family owned pub. If any of the Roane's wanted to work there, they had the job." He stops for a second.

"Ok and when did Mr. Roane buy you out?"

"About 3 weeks back, Donny comes to me and asks how much I'm looking for it. I told him a hundred and fifty grand. The next day he gave me a check for the place. I almost sold it to one of the bar tenders but Donny our bid him. Mikey, the bar tender was looking for 125 but I told Donny 150 to see if he'd pay and he did."

"How did Mikey feel when Donny bought the place?" Cat asks stepping forward from the corner of the room.

"He wasn't thrilled but he understood. That was Donny's second home." Beko tells us. We let Beko leave after that and tell him we may need him later. We walk back to the squad room where Beck tells us that Kate was looking for us.

We walk down to the lab to see Kate examining a shard of red glass. "What's up?" Cat says getting her to turn around.

"Hey! So I found this in our vic's head." She says pointing to the shard of red glass under a large magnifying glass. "There are no marking indicating where it's from so I swabbed it. The test results came up saying there were traces of alcohol on it." Kate finishes.

"We have a resentful bartender and a bottle containing an alcoholic beverage…" Cat thinks out loud.

"And the Pub is what? Two blocks from the river? Possibly a potential crime scene?" I say finishing her though.

"What do you say Shapiro? Can I buy you a drink?" She says flirtily.

"I thought you'd never ask…" I chuckle.

We drive down to the pub and park the car. "This is one of the best pubs in town, you know?" I say walking towards it with Cat next to me.

"Really?" She says stopping in front of the door and stepping to the side. I follow. She grabs my tie and loosens it a little bit. She continues to take her hair out of the semi-messy bun she was wearing and makes it look more casual.

"What are you doing?" I ask. She puts on a little bit of lip gloss.

"Were not going to get much out of Mikey looking like cops…" She says.

"Undercover… I like it… You may want to pop one more button just in case." I say looking down at her shirt. It had 3 buttons towards the color. One was already undone.

She stares at me sensually and undoes another button showing part of her black bra and more cleavage than ever before.

She turns and walks in though the door. It takes me a second to catch my breath and to calm myself down but I quickly follow her in. We walk over to the bar and ask a younger man standing there if he had seen Donny lately.

"No, sorry. He doesn't come in for a few more minutes, but I'm sure he'd be pleased to see a woman like you sitting in his regular section. I'm Mikey…" The man flirts.

"Oh… Ok. Well tell me Mikey, you don't happen to have any of this liquor? It's really delicious and it comes in a red bottle?" Cat says sexually picking up a Marciano cherry and slowly taking a bit of it. She definitely knew how to get something out of a man.

"Let me check for you." He says. He comes back a minute later.

"Sorry. No red bottles. Just the regular green, brown and clear. Maybe I could interest you in a blue vodka?"

"Actually Mikey… we're not here for a drink." She says holding up her badge.

We pull him off to the side and sit at a booth. "How could he be dead? I was just with him last night…" Mikey says quietly.

"What time was that?" I ask him.

"Around 3 in the morning. I locked up on my way out and Donny went to do the books in the office. He did that every night."

"Are you sure he was alone when you left?" Cat asks him.

"Yea…positive."

"And how did you feel when he stole the bar right out from under you?" I ask him.

"You know about that?" He pauses and we nod. "I didn't care. I was upset because this place was amazing, but any problem I had with Donny was short lived. He was like a brother to me. He grew up here and he deserved it more than I did."

"I'd like to see his office, if you don't mind." I ask him. Mikey stands up and we follow.

"It's in the basement. Follow me."

"There's a basement?" I say shocked.

He says walking towards the back corner of the pub. He stops and squats down in front of an electrical socket and pulls it out. He twists it to the side and we hear a click. He lifts a latch that was on the floor that opens up a cellar door. There was a latter leading down about 6 feet and it stopped on a platform that had stairs going down the rest of the way. Mikey flicks up a light switch and a light turns on in the cellar.

"They found it in the flood of '98. No one knew it was here before that. Well I would imagine Donny's grandfather did but no one else. Do you want me to come or can I go finish my shift?" Mikey asks us.

"You can finish your shift but if you don't mind, stay until we're finished in case we need something." I explain to him. Cat climbs down first and stops on the platform and waits for me. She starts to button up her shirt again.

"What are you doing?" I say.

"Buttoning my shirt. I don't need to be persuasive anymore." She tells me.

"Oh…"

"Why? Do you like it like this?" She says taking a step closer.

"Um…"

"Don't worry… We're alone. You can be honest." She says sensually. "I won't tell." She whispers. She steps back chuckling.

I stand there silent still staring at her. "Um… we should go, uh, go check out… uh…" I point down into the basement. "There."

She smiles at me and goes first. "I know that you were kidding but listen… you left your old job because some guy couldn't control himself. And I know that I'm not that kind of guy but we work well together, and I would hate to screw this up and have you have to leave. The reason I come into work every day, is to see that amazing, bright, cheerful, smile of yours and I don't know what I'd do without it…" I say to her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ok… I'm sorry…Just partners." She tells me.

"No… Friends…Really great friends." I say pulling her in for a hug. I wrap my arms around her and give her a nice squeeze. I let go and take the two parts of her collar and button them back together. My finger grazes her chest and a shiver runs through my body. I look up from her chest and at her but all she does is smile.

**Ok so part two will be up tomorrow or Monday. This case is kinda cool. I was watching an episode of Castle earlier and I had to write something like it. The premise is the same but I wrote everything myself. I made Cat do/say a couple things Beckett did though. **

**So yea. I had to break this one up or it would have been really long. I started to write something different then I took a break and watched that episode and ended up deleting what I had written lol. So expect another update tomorrow or Monday. I'm also going to have sort of a contest tomorrow. I'm not sure what the prize is, maybe just bragging rights haha, but I'm going to throw in a song at the end of the next chapter. If you can tell me the title, singer, what year it came out in, and what album it was first on, I'll do something for you… Idk what though haha.**

**If you have any ideas for that something, please let me know and make my life easier haha. REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Really long chap but it'll tie everything together from the last chap haha. I kind of like breaking these cases up so i might do it more haha! Hope you like it!**

We found nothing in the basement but a few old record books which we brought back. Cat and I were looking though them when I found a consignment receipt from and auction company.

"Come look at this Cat." I hold it up and she walks over to me.

"What was Roane doing with an auction company?" She asks.

"Let's find out." I say getting up and grabbing my coat.

"Let's." She says following.

On the way up we bump into a waitress and stop her. "Excuse me." I say.

"Oh it's ok." She says and turns to walk away.

"Wait. Did you have a shift last night?" I ask her.

"No I had the night off. Why?"

"I don't know if you've been informed yet, but Donny was murdered the other night." She looked horrified but I continued. "When was the last time you saw him?" I asked.

"The other night. I don't know. I thought he left but some drunk guy kept banging on the doors and he came up from the basement to get rid of him. I was down there minutes before but he wasn't down there. I didn't know where he came from. Anyway, after he got the drunk guy to leave, he went home. Listen I have to get back to work. We're short." She finishes when I hear a couple people shouting for her in the background.

We drive over to the Counter and Hinsers Auction house to ask the man who does the auctioning about what Roane sold that day. We get out and walk though the cold towards a large building.

"Hello. Mr. Hinsers?" I ask him.

"Yes that's me. What could I do for you?"

"Do you know this man?" Cat asks him giving him a picture.

"Yes. That's Donald Roane." He tells us.

"He was murdered yesterday morning." I tell Mr. Hinsers.

"Oh good lord…" He says.

"We understand he put an item up for auction here. We were wondering what it was."

"Are you familiar with Jimmie Walker?" Mr. Hinsers asks us.

"Yes, everybody knows Jimmie Walker." I return. He gives me a look.

"No, not the actor who played JJ on 'Good Times'." He says glaring at me.

"No, the former mayor of New York. Elected into office in 1926, went by the nickname of Beau James. Famous for being a corrupt politician, renown womanizer and also openly defiant of prohibition." I state glaring back at him to prove him wrong.

"Oh… so you do know who he is."

"What does the former mayor have to do with this?" Cat asks.

"Donald had an item that once belonged to him. Mayor walked supposedly had a private wine collection, thought to have one of the finest whiskeys ever distilled." The man explains.

"That was dumped into the sewers by federal agents when they ran him out of office." I finish his thought.

"Well Donald came in with the only surviving bottle. It was an 1875 St. Miriam rock of Scotland. He got 26 thousand dollars for it." The man continued to explain.

"That's one of the most valuable, rare scotches in the world. I would kill for just a taste of it."

"Do you have a picture of this bottle?" Cat asks.

"Yes. Follow me." We walk over towards a computer. He pulls up a picture and lets us look at it.

"A red glass bottle… I think we just found our murder weapon." Cat says.

"Where is it now?" I ask the man.

"It was sold at $26,000 to a man by the name of Edwin McRoss." He explains.

"Do you have an address?" Cats asks. Mr. Hinsers nods.

We pull up to a relatively crappy apartment building and go inside to find the elevator. He lived in the penthouse so we end up going all the way up. When we come to the door Cat knocks.

"What the hell do you want!?" A kid says before opening the door. When he sees it was the police his expression drops.

"Is there an Edwin McRoss here?" I say holding up the badge.

"I go by Eddy." He informs us.

"You're kidding me. You're Edwin McRoss… Whatever. Did you buy a $26,000 bottle of scotch?" I ask him still shocked that this 25 year old had that kind of money.

"Yes."

"Do you mind showing it to us?" Cat asks.

"Why do you get to come in here and start bossing me around. God. You think you're all that because you're the cops?" He says rudely.

"We're not cops. We're Feds." I say holding the badges right in front of his face so he could see the Federal Bureau of Investigation on it.

"Whatever man. Just because I dropped out of law school doesn't mean I don't know my rights." He says.

"That bottle was used in a murder. So unless you want to learn your Miranda Rights, I suggest you show us the bottle." Cat says stepping closer and getting in his face.

"Ok, Ok. Fine. I'll go and get it." He walks over to his recycling bin and pulls out a perfectly intact red glass bottle.

"We'll be taking that." I say taking it from his hand with a white cloth. We bring the bottle back to Kate down in the lab.

"Same glass but this definitely didn't come from this bottle. The shard is too big to not have left anything. And the pattern in the break doesn't match the patter of this bottle." She tells us.

"That means this isn't the only remaining bottle in the world…! So that means I have another shot at getting a taste…" I say happily.

"What is with men and their alcohols…?" Cat asks Kate.

"I know right!" She returns. "So I finished the autopsy a little bit earlier… There was this weird scar on Donny Roane's shoulder. It was relatively new. I opened it back up and inside was bullets. Buckshot to be exact. But that wasn't what killed him obviously."

"Maybe Donny found out that there was another bottle and found out what it was worth… Who knows, maybe he ended up getting a little more than he bargained for." Cat says to Kate.

On the walk back up from the basement I turn to Cat, "You know, my entire life, I've wanted my own bar. My own Irish pub or something. Just somewhere I could escape to, somewhere I could be something other than a cop."

"Really? I never pictured you as that kind of guy."

"Yea. Just somewhere I could cool down and reload…" I stop dead in my tracks. "Reload… I know how he was shot!" I cry.

We rush back to the pub and back down into the basement. "Look at that wall." I say bringing her over to it. "Look. Do you see the paint? Something was painted over." I grab a letter opener off the desk next to us and chip away the paint and dig out a little bullet.

"Buckshot." Cat says in amazement.

"Now. Think about it this way. Back in the day, the mobs and other people would hid their things and set booby-traps to keep people away. What if Donny found out that Jimmy Walker had a stash of these $26,000 scotches. He would go looking for them. And in the process, getting shot by a booby-trap. That waitress didn't see Donny down here the other day, that's because he was hiding. Help me move this book case." I get on one side and Cat gets on the other and we pull it out. She takes a step back and her jaw hits the floor.

We step into this passageway that was hiding behind the bookshelf and there was a door right in front of us. We open it and on the inside was an 1800's shot gun set up to shoot anyone who opened the door.

"It's only a single shot so it would have to be reloaded each time it was fired." I tell her. We step through the doors and turn on our flashlights. It was dark and gross.

"Shhh… Do you hear that?" Cat says.

"That's rushing water…" I say. We step in a few feet and everything was damp.

"This must be part of the old sewer system." Cat says.

"They used them as access tunnels during the prohibition." We continue to walk for about 2 minutes when I see something up ahead.

"What's that?" I ask her and she shines the light on it. There was a pike of bricks and a sledge hammer next to a gaping hole in a brick wall.

"It looks like an old passage way that was bricked up. At least until Donny got at it." She chuckles. I search the wall for a light and find a switch which I flick up.

"Woah…" I say seeing the shelves lining the walls filled with bottles on the old scotch.

We look up and down the hundreds of bottles when we both come to a desk in the back. A smashed red bottle was laying towards the middle of it.

"Looks like we found our murder weapon." Some liquid was spilled on the table too. I go to stick my finger in it when Cat says, "There's probably blood mixed in it, in case you were thinking of tasting it." I quickly draw my hand back.

"So somebody follows Donny down here and finds his treasure. Surprising him. The fight and the killed find the closest weapon possible… a bottle of scotch." She gets up from the squatting position she was in.

"Look at this. So he picks up the body and drags it all the way down." She follows the drag trails all the way to a stone cube which dumped into a modern day sewer. "Then he or she dumped him in here. It probably leads out to the East River." She says turning to me.

I turn around and see something glowing. I pick up this glow stick near the brick pile. "Someone's been here recently." It was glowing very bright.

A shadow moves in the distance and something falls to the ground. "FBI! DON'T MOVE!"I shout and we bolt after whoever was there. We chase this figure all the way until we get to a corner. When we turn it, he's gone.

"What the hell…" I say. "It's a dead end. Where the hell did he go?"

"There is no possible way he could have gotten out… Unless this was walled up too… For all the weird stiff down here, maybe there's something behind here. Maybe there's a back way entrance… that way no one could see him going back and forth to his stash." Cat explains.

We head back to the precinct and sit at the white board with a sewage map on it.

"There has to be another access point from the tunnel to the East River sewage line. It's like these tunnels don't exist on here…" Cat says tracing some of the lines.

"That's because they don't. Not for a very long time. I mean there are subway lines that aren't used anymore that no one's seen in decades. They just got bricked up and forgotten about." I explain.

"So if we get an old sewage map, we can find out where our killed escaped to and maybe find some witnesses on the other end!" Cat says happily.

We head down to the NYC archives and find a sewage map from before World War II. "The prohibitions started around 1920 so this should be good. It's from 1918."

"So if this is The Winchester Arms, this sewer line wasn't on the newer map. That means this is where he went. He's the stash of scotch…He could just grab one and go if he wanted." I explain.

"There are 1…2…3, sewer lines that branch off of this one. He could have gone though anyone of these." Cat says as I pick up a little note card from the beginning of the book.

"These are archives… meaning people have to sign them out… The most recent was… 2 weeks ago. I bet this person was trying to get back from the stash just like we are."

Cat looks up at me and down at the paper. She sighs with a slight chuckle in it. "Going once, going twice, sold." I smirk.

We walk into the auction house and take our seats. Beck stands in the back and Jones stays off to the side.

"Ok and now we are going to the next item. A 1955 Barolo Marchese di Villadoria. Let's start the bid at $1200. Do I hear 1200?" A man raises his hand. "1200 in the back. Do I hear 1250?"

A woman raises her hand off to the side of the room. "1250 right there. Do I hear 1300?" I raise my hand and he just stares at me.

"D-Do I h-hear 1350?" He says hesitantly. Cat raises her badge.

"Dear lord…" He says under his breath. "Do I h-hear 1400?" Beck steps into sight and raises his badge. Mr. Hinsers tries to turn and run but Jones step in front of him.

"Sorry, dipshit, not this time." He says grabbing his wrist and pinning it under his shoulder blade. Mr. Hinsers winces. Jones cuffs him and takes him out to our car.

When we get back to the precinct, someone wheels in the remaining hundred bottles of scotch. I quickly grab one but Jones takes it from me. "That's evidence." He says and puts it back.

"Donny told Hinsers about the stash and Hinsers told him it would be better to sell it one bottle at a time. He would make more money that way." Cat starts to explain.

"He got greedy. Donny left the stash the found it and it gave Hinsers enough time to figure out where it was hidden." I finish.

"When he found Donny in the vault, Hinsers panicked and bashed him over the head with a bottle." Cat says.

I grab a bottle again. "How can I get one?" I ask.

"I told you, they're evidence." Jones says as his phone rings. He steps away. A minute later he comes back with a smile on his face.

"So apparently, the DA thinks that because Jimmy Walker was our former mayor, these bottle belong to the city… BUT If you're willing to make a generous donation to the FBI's children's charity fund… she says we can score you one. This is early Christmas…" He says handing the bottle to me.

My jaw hits the floor and for a second I thought I was going to cry. "I don't know what to say…" I stare in amazement at the bottle.

Cat rolls her eyes, "Try, let me get my check book."

"Of course! Big donation we're talking about… But I will only accept this, if you all share it with me."

"Twist my arm." Jones says holding it out.

"I don't think I'll need to. But not here, let's do it at The Winchester's Arms, in toast to Donny and his family."

"So what's going to happen to that place?" Beck asks.

"Well it belongs to the bank now. Looks like that Mikey kid may get another chance at it." Jones says.

"Oh… I wouldn't worry about that old place…" I smile.

"You bought it didn't you…?" Cat smiles.

"Yea… I did. I've always wanted a bar of my own, plus that one is cool as hell!" I cry.

"You're such a child." Cat rolls her eyes.

"That I am." I smirk. "So are you joining us?" I ask Cat.

"No, but thank you. It's getting late and I should be getting home." She declines. I look down at my watch.

"It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday!" I argue.

"Actually it's 9:15." Beck correct.

"The regular crowd shuffles in…" I sing.

Beck laughs getting it now, "There's an old man sitting next to me…" Beck continues.

"Making love to his tonic and gin…" Jones sings loudly.

We all look at Cat and she looks confused. Finally she smiles.

"He said son can you play me a memory. I'm not really sure how it goes." She sings somewhat quietly. I stare at her as she sings and whisper, "Woah, what a voice."

I join her and she sings louder. "But it's sad and its sweet and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger man's cloths." She smiles and we all join arm in arm.

We all walk our way out sing at the top of our lungs, "Sing us a song, you're the piano man, sing us a song tonight. Well we're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feeling alright…"

**Contest time! – I want: **

**_Title_**

**_Artist_**

**_The year it came out in_**

**_The first album it was on_**

***And if you can find it***

**_What line and song from one of his other songs is about this song_**

**I grew up listening to him. I grew up watching my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and my parent dance around my grandparent's kitchen during the holidays singing this song at the top of their lungs. By the time I was 4, I literally knew every word to almost all of his songs, and that is a hell of a lot. **

**So, the first one to tell me the title, singer, what year it came out in, and what album it was first on, and the line from one of his other songs that is about this song, will be my best friend. If you have a twitter, I'll give you a shout out, I'll follow you (If I'm not already), and I will give you a virtual hug lol. **

**Ready? Set. Go! Lol REVIEW your answer!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well you guys suck at contests... lol jk. But thank you Sofia13 for trying and yea you got them all right! PM me if you have a twitter and i'll follow you on all of my accounts and give you a shoutout on my main.**

"The Paddock Lounge. What a place. You know back in the 1940's this club was big. One of the biggest in New York City. I can't even begin to imagine the stories these walls would tell if they could talk." I say with a sigh. Cat and I walk over to Kate who was squatting over a bloodied body.

"Who's our vic?" Cat asks as Kate looks up.

"Sam Calvin. Single gunshot wound to the chest. I would say between 6 and 8 this morning." Kate explains.

"What's that in his hand?" I look at the green rod in his hand.

"It's an iron rod. He probably had it to defend himself but as you can see, it didn't work." She tells.

"So are we thinking robbery gone wrong?" I look behind me to Jones.

"Not exactly." Jones stars. "His wallet is still here. It has about $50 and all the credit cards in it. He had a phone and a room key in his left pocket." Jones finishes.

"Where's the key from?" Cat asks.

"It's a SRO key. So he was definitely living alone."

Beck steps into the conversation. "The pockets were pulled out from his pants like someone was looking for something. But nothing was taken."

"That's weird, he's got and SRO key but his license says he lives on 34th street." Cat says looking down at the wallet.

"We'll go check out the SRO room. You guys stay here and we'll let you know what we find." Jones says taking the key from Cat. He walks off and Beck follows. I look behind me at the bar. I walk over and behind it. There was a gray sleeping bag behind the empty bar. Around it were some empty food containers and cups.

"Hey check this out." I call over to Cat. She comes walking behind the bar.

"Looking for a drink? I'm pretty sure this bar's been closed a while." She chuckles.

"No, I think I found some homless guys squat… and today's ledger." I say digging though the area.

"So he's been here recently. Whoever he is, maybe he saw something. I'll get patrol units to canvas the area. We head back to the precinct and towards our desk.

"Hey, is Calvin married?" Cat asks. I turn on the monitor to my computer and look up Calvin, Sam.

"Yea. To an Emily Bennington. I'll call her in." I pick up the phone and make the call. This was always the hardest part. About a half hour later a woman comes walking in and over towards out desks.

"Mrs. Calvin?" I ask.

"Ms. Bennington. Sam and I got a divorce about a year ago." She tells.

"Oh I'm sorry. Do you have any idea why your ex husband was at the Paddock Lounge?" Cat apologizes and asks.

"Isn't that the abandoned building on 42nd?" She asks.

"Yes. Back in the 40's is was a night club. A favorite spot for some of the mobsters. Do you have any idea why he would be there?" I explain.

"No, I'm sorry. I haven't even talked to my ex in over 3 months. When we first started seeing each other and into the first few years of our marriage, we couldn't even go 3 minutes without talking to each other. Then he went of looking for that freaking doubloon."

"Doubloon? As in old Spanish coin?" Cat asks.

"Yes. He collected them. He found one on a beach in South Carolina. It only got worse after he saw this documentary about a treasure hunter names Oscar Dounam."

"That's that guy who found the confederate ship ten years ago." I responded.

"Yep. Sam was so inspired that he ended up quitting his accounting job just to find this thing called the Blue Swan. He was obsessed."

"The Blue Swan… Ok."

"Then about 3 days ago, I get this call. It was a man on the other end and he was saying how Sam owed him $10 thousand. He said if he didn't get it soon, he's kill him."

I look at Cat thinking we may have gotten a break. "Thank you for your time. If we need you again we'll call." Cat says looking curiously at me as the woman gets up and walks out.

"The Blue Swan?" She asks me. I type it in on the computer.

"Yea… I don't have a clue…" I explain to her as she searches though some of Calvin's stuff.

I get up and dig though the box with her. "There's nothing about a blue butterfly here. This thing's cool though. It looks like some journal from 1947. Sound like it belonged to a Private I. Listen to this," I flip through it. " _"Usually wives turn on the water works when shown picture of their husbands stepping out, but not this dame. She wanted payback. So what's worse, that I pitched woo with a client or that I invoiced her for services rendered after." _"

Cat just rolls her eyes and says, "Cute."

"Cute? This guy sounds like a hard core PI from some Raymond Chandler novel… I wonder why Sam had this?"

Beck walks into the room. "Hey Rob. Haven't found anything on that homeless guy from the Lounge, but a few people saw a white mustang parked outside of the place for a few days."

"Ok. Go check if anyone caught the plates."

"Ok." Beck replies and walks out.

Jones walks though. "So that call that Calvin's ex got about him. The threat. It came from a dry cleaners on 50th and Madison."

"Ok. Go check out who made the call. Get security footage and try to find our guy." Cat says.

I look over at Cat. "I think I'm gonna take this home for the night. There might just be something inside that we need to know."

"You just think it's cool." She chuckles.

"Yea that too." I say turning around and grabbing my jacket. Cat gets her stuff. "Can I walk you out?" I ask her.

"Sure, thanks." She says throwing her bag over her shoulder and following me to the elevator. We get to the parking garage and I smile.

"Have a nice night."

"You too." She responds before walking the opposite direction and towards her car.

As soon as I pull up next to my apartment, I grab the journal and run inside. There was something about the 40's that intrigued me. Something about the way they spoke, how they acted, how different it was from today. I unlock my door and flop onto the couch.

_June 18__th__, 1947_

_The day began like every other. Pulling awake in my office chair with a crème of Kentucky bottle, a dry throat and a head that was ringing like church bells. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone with a little hair from the dog that bit me. Like always my assistant was bugging about everything. It was just another day on the isle of Manhattan, until she walked in with a case that changed my life. Wearing_ _t-strap shoes and a country suit, I could tell that red head was a hick fresh off the cob. "Hello. My names Sally McClain. I'm sorry… I'm a newlywed and I'm not used to the name. I'm Sally Mohalland." She started. _

_I introduced myself. "Joe Flynn, Mrs. Mohlland. So tell me, what are you doing knocking on my shingle?" _

_She looked down. "I didn't come here to the big apple on my honeymoon to climb skyscrapers. I had another reason. I'm looking for my big sister Vera. Vera McClain. There was some bad blood back home and Vera ran off 2 years ago with dreams of being a show girl here in the big city."_

_"She send you anything like a wire, a letter, a postcard, something with a return address?" I asked her._

_She shook her head no. "Can you find her Mr. Flynn. Mama's sick and uh… doesn't have long."_

_My assistant, like the greedy thing she is, says, "Well of course he can. For 15 bucks a day plus expenses." She knew half of that money would be going to her so she raised the price by 3 dollars._

_The young girl nodded. "Only can we keep this quiet. Like I said, there's bad blood back home and if Vera finds from a stranger that the family is looking for her, it might push her farther away."_

_"Mrs. Moholland, if I'm anything, I'm discrete." I tell her as she hands me a picture of this dame._

_And that's when I saw her. Looking at the photograph all I could think was "What a beautiful doll."_

I close the book for a second to think. I put it down on the couch and get up for a glass of water. I reach up into the shelves for a glass and fill it half way. I stand looking out the window a few feet away just trying to picture what it looked like in the 40's.

I finish the glass and place it in the sink before walking back over to the couch. It was about 10:30 so I swore I'd only finish one more entry. I open the journal back up and blink a few times before starting again.

_June 19, 1947_

_Sally said Vera had dreams of being a show girl. Maybe she made it. Stranger things have happened in this time. My last stop was The Paddock Lounge. I was hoping my favorite performer Satchmo was blowing but no such luck. Couldn't complain though because Betsy Sinclair was up there and that song bird has golden pipes._

_"Whiskey." I told the bartender. I'd be damned if all that walking made the shrapnel in my hip start buzzing, but I knew were to get my medicine. I down the two fingers worth and turn to the man._

_"Say maybe you could help me. I'm looking for a dame." I tell him._

_"Aren't we all?" He chuckles._

_"This one's special. You know her." I say showing him the picture._

_"Know her? I'm looking at her." I follow the direction he looking and see the woman wearing a dark blue dress come walking in._

_"Where have you been all my life…" I say under my breath._

_What was I thinking. This dame was trouble on two legs. I kept telling myself to look away. She was with Trigger Mike Coppola for crying out loud. He was the most ruthless mob boss New York has ever given birth too._

_Coppola caught me staring and sent over two of his gorillas, an Irishmen and a Cuban on loan from some Havana Mob Family._

I was picturing each character as our team. Jones was the Irishmen, Beck, the Cuban, Vera was Cat and the PI was me. Everyone else I made up but it was more fun knowing my characters. I went back to the story.

_"The boss wants to see you boy-o." The Irishmen said._

_"Sorry boys, my dance card's full." I say back sarcastically._

_"This isn't a request compadre." He says moving his coat to the side to reveal a gun in a holster._

_The both grabbed me under the arms and pulled me to the back or the lounge where I got the sense beat out of me and got pistol whipped._

_"Don't let me catch you staring at my doll again. Got it?" Coppola says as his gorillas throw me into the ally and on top of some garbage cans._

_There I was, covered in the discards of the blue plate special. I asked myself, was it worth it. It was. It was worth every single punch._

_"Are you hurt?" A woman's voice says as Vera steps out from the shadows._

_"What this? This is nothing. You should have seen what my face did to the other guy's fist." _

_She chuckles. "Vera! You know you're not allowed to leave the bosses sight with his hardware on." The Irishmen says looking down at the blue necklace around her neck. It was a beautiful swan made completely of blue and white diamonds._

"The Blue Swan!" I cry slamming the journal down onto the coffee table in front of me. "It's the necklace. That's why Sam Calvin was killed."

The next morning I rush over to the precinct. Cat and Jones were standing by the white board talking. I walk over to them.

"So anything on that threatening call to the ex from the dry cleaners?" Cat asks after she finishes writing something on the white board.

"They don't have any cameras. The owner claims he doesn't know anything about Sam or blue butterflies. However, this guy, Chuck Horton, rents out a back room, Horton is a bookie on parole."

"Ok. So maybe Sam was trying to meet Chuck at The Paddock Lounge so he could pay off some debts?" She suggests.

"Nope. Sam was not there to pay off any depts. He wasn't even there about blue swans. He was there about THE Blue Swan. It's a necklace made entirely of blue and white diamonds. It's worth about 2.5 million dollars. Back in the 40's a mobster names "Trigger" Mike Coppola gave this to all of the woman he had dated."

"Where are you getting all of this?" Cat asks and Jones looks at me.

"The PI's diary."

"So Sam was on a treasure hunt." Jones says.

"Yes. I did a little research. It turns out the Blue Swan disappeared sometime in the 40's and rumor has it, it was hidden somewhere in The Paddock Lounge. If Sam Calvin found it, 2.5 million dollars is definitely motive for murder." I pause. "Oh and Jones… Say "Boy-o"."

"Boy-o." He simply says.

"No. Boy-o." I say with a bit of an Irish accent.

"Boy-o." He tries.

"No." I say giving up. "So the necklace was originally owned by a general in the first world war. After it ended he died and the necklace was then in the hands of Mob Boss "Trigger" Mike Coppola, the owner of The Paddock Lounge in the 40's. This is why we have to go back.

"We do?" Cat says curiously.

"Yes. You remember the green rod we found in Sam Calvin's hand. Apparently Coppola's office was painted a shamrock green. Sam had to have gone down there. Also according to the diary, The Blue Swan was kept in a secret safe in his office. It's very possible we missed something. We never really looked down there."

"Ok. I'll see if I can get a hold of the bookie from the dry cleaners. You and Cat go back to the crime scene."

I look at Jones. "Boy-o." I say.

"Boy-o."

"No Boy-o. Like a leprechaun."

"Robbie!"

"Sorry." I say running to catch up with Cat.

Cat and I get to The Paddock Lounge and walk in. On the way over I explained what I read last night and how I finished it this morning. "So the PI tells Sally that he found her sister here at The Paddock Lounge."

"And did Sally go talk to her sister?"

"Well no. With Sally being an innocent girl from the country, she didn't want to make contact with mobsters. So the PI offered to go back and make contact. So Joe, the PI, tells Sally that he's going to go arrange a meeting. Sally agreed but insisted that Joe not tell Vera that she was looking for her." We get down the stairs and I look around. "Ah-ha."

I walk over to a window that shows partially out the top of the basement. The iron rods were kepping people from getting in and out but one was broken.

"I bet that's where Sam got the rod, which is probably what he used to pry open, the secret safe." I finish.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but this safe hasn't held anything in years." I turn to see Cat looking into a safe that was hidden behind a painting.

"That's not the safe though."

"That's not the safe?" Cat asks cluelessly.

"Here's a fun fact. People often kept two safes. One that was very easy to find but still hidden for the less valuable things. The second was a lot hard to find and kept more valuable things like the Blue Swan." I explain. This stuff was so up my alley.

"Robbie! Where is it then?" Cat asks anxiously.

"Coming to that. So its been 5 days since Joe and Vera met, and they were very much in love."

"After only 5 days, come one…" She replies doubtfully.

"People didn't waste time back in the 40's. They were so much in love that they risked it all. So it happened backstage. Joe and Vera were stealing a moment together, which was dangerous because she was his girl. As they stared into each other's eye's Cat's heart quickened."

"Did you just say Cat's!? Are you picturing you as the PI and me as the mobsters girl?! " Cat stops me.

"What?! No. I said Fate's. Fate's heart quickened! I was being poetic." I turn and walk away trying to hide my blush. I turn back around and she doesn't look entirely convinced so I decide to continue before anymore questions.

"They were just about to kiss when The Irishmen and the Cuban mobsters walk in. The Irishmen looked at Joe and said, "Hey Boy-o! You must be a slow learner." Just in time the singer from on stage steps out and from behind the curtains and says, "There's my baby." Before pulling me in for a long kiss. "He's with you Miss Sinclare?" She rudely says yes back. That gets rid of them but Vera stays. She understood what Miss Sinclare did and was happy we got another moment together."

"This is quite a love story…" Cat says during my pause.

"That was when they planned they would run off together. They needed to find a way to take the Blue Swan necklace with them, but that was going to be hard with Coppola's gorilla's watching Vera's every move. They were smart though. There was a boxing match that everyone would be listening to. That was when they would leave."

"And?!" Cat says completely and utterly intrigued.

"And that's it. That was the last entry." I explain to her.

"What do you mean you don't know! What happened to Joe and Vera!?"

"I don't know." I chuckle at how upset she was.

"Why would you tell a story if you don't know the ending?!"

"Whatever…" She says angry that I'm laughing at her. "So where is this secret safe?"

"I don't know, but Sam must have found it, or he wouldn't need that rod." I explain. Cat pushes past me and towards the back wall. The wood molding on the wall was broken and the wood the covered the bottom looked like it was horribly put back in place. Cat yanks it to see a safe behind it.

"Well… I guess we found it."

**This is going to be a 2 or 3 part chapter btw. Haha well REVIEW!**


	7. Chapter 7

"Sam found it… That's why he was killed." I look at the empty safe. My phone starts to ring and I pull it out to see a text from Beck.

_We found the guy who made the call to Calvin's ex._

I send back a simple ok and Cat and I walk back to the car. "How cool is this case?" I ask her.

"It's pretty cool. You're like a little kid with all of it." She smiles.

"I know. My grandpa used to tell me stories about when he grew up. That was mostly during the 40's so I always found an interest. Plus, mobsters, lost jewelry, and people killing to find it, it's like it came out of some mystery story." I explain.

We pull into the parking garage next to the precinct and get out. Beck and Jones had the suspect in the interrogation room waiting for Cat and I, so we got up there quickly.

"He's waiting for you in the Interrogation room." Jones says as we walk by. He hands Cat a folder with the suspects file in it and we continue on. Cat opens the door and goes in first. I pull out the chair to let her sit and then sit next to her.

"Martin Hicks… Assault, battery, and now you're using a dry cleaners to front you bookmaking operation." I say leaning over his shoulder and resting my arm on the iron table he's sitting at.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm a man on parole. A person such as myself can't be caught up in any bookmaking operations."

"How about being caught up in murder?" Cat asks him with her hands clasped in front of her. She unclasps them and slides a photo of Sam Calvin's body in front of him.

"Om my god. Sam? Who killed him?" He asks looking disgruntled. We both look at him with a 'seriously?' kind of look on our faces.

"Me? Why the hell would I kill my business partner?" Martin explains. Cat and I chuckle knowing that it couldn't be true. "I'm serious! One of my clients hooked us up. He knew that I needed to versify and that Sam needed the financing to find this necklace. He said that he needed 10 grand for expenses to buy this old private detectives diary. So I agreed to back him for half the profits."

"If all of this is true, tell me, why did you threaten Sam to his wife?" Cat asks again.

"It seemed like Sam was trying to get out of all of this. I just spent 10 grand on this guy, and I wanted my money back. Then he came to me 3 days ago and told me what he knew. He said he found the guys who was the missing piece of the puzzle to the Blue Swan."

"And this 'guy' is…?" I look at him. Martin didn't have a bead of sweat. His feet weren't tapping, his hands weren't shaking, nothing was there to indicate he was lying.

"I don't know. But if Sam found this necklace, then this is the guy who killed him." Cat and I look at each other and then I turn back to the man.

"Thanks for your time. If we need to question you further, we will be in touch." Martin nodded as we got up and left.

"So I traced the diary… Sam definitely did his research. He purchased the diary from the granddaughter of Joe Flynn's old secretary. A woman by the name of Josephine Violante." I explain to Cat who looks quite interested.

"So?" She says with a beautiful smile on her face.

"So… I spoke to Mrs. Violante and she said she may still have some of the PI's old papers and they might be able to tell us what happened. She's going to have her son look for them and then call us if she finds anything." I reply.

"Listen, I admit that Joe and Vera's story is fun and romantic but whatever happened back in 1947 has nothing to do with who murdered Sam." She tells me. I look down at my feet knowing that the fun was over and that she was right.

"I would be so sure of that." Jones says walking in with Beck. So, Martin alibi'd out but ballistics came back a few minutes ago. We have a match. The .38 caliber revolver that was used to kill Sam Calvin was used in an unsolved double homicide… back in 1947." He looks at Cat as he says each word. A smile formed on my face.

"This has to be the coolest case ever!" I cry. Everyone looks at me, the entire room stared. I chuckled nervously. "Sorry…" I say.

"Who are the victims?" Cat asks Beck. He looks down into the file.

"Some lady names Vera McClain and a private detective named Joe Flynn." Beck states.

I look up at Cat completely dumb founded. "Murdered… That really sucks. I always thought those two would make it." I say somewhat upset.

"Yea… not exactly the ending I was hoping for."

"Yea. Well the remains of these two were found in Flynn's car that was parked in an alley behind The Paddock Lounge. Both victims were shot with a .38 revolver and the car was set on fire. The only suspect they had was Mike Cappola or "Trigger" Mike a well know mobster back in the 40's, but there was never enough evidence to convict him." Beck explains. Jones is standing there trying to piece together the story as Beck reads from the case file.

"I bet that Cappola caught them trying to run away with each other and put a cap in each of them. My only question is, how the hell did Sam get Cappola's gun 65 years later?"

"Nice math. But What if Cappola killed Sam. He'd be what? 90 something years old. It's not impossible."

"Yea but improbable. 90's pretty old." Cat says.

"Couldn't have been Cappola. He died of a heart attack four months after the two love birds were murdered. But still… we should dig up the 1947 police report. There could be something in there we need to know."

"Alright. I'll go check it out." Beck says to us.

Almost simultaneously Cat and I jump up from our seats and shout "No!" Beck and Jones look at us like we have two heads.

"We've got it. Don't worry. Just hang back and do stuff… you know like… stuff." Cat says innocently.

"Ok?" They both say.

Cat and I hurry off and to the elevator. Once the doors shut and we know were safe we both start cracking up.

On the way to the warehouse Cat gets a call from Jones.

"Hey." She says.

"Hey. So it turns out that there was an estate sale where a treasure hunter named Oscar Dounam bought all of Coppola's firearms, including two .38's." Jones says over the phone.

"Oscar Dounam. Sam's wife said that the two of them watched a documentary about him and that's when Sam got hooked on treasure hunting." Cat says excitedly.

"Well the funny thing is, it doesn't stop there. Oscar Dounam flew in from Europe a week ago and it says that Dounam searched for the Blue Swan for 15 years!"

"That bookie said that Sam found someone who had the missing piece of the puzzle." I say loud enough for Jones to hear.

"Well maybe Dounam is that someone." He says slowly.

"Check him out, will you?" Then the line goes dead and cat stuff the phone back into her pocket.

Cat and I pull into the parking lot of the FBI warehouse where we keep all of the old reports. There were boxes upon boxes on shelves that filled the warehouse. We walk forward to 2 guards who were sitting at the sign in desk. I sign us both in and show them the badge before walking in. We look at the wall were all the boxes were listed.

"Ok it's in the west corner." Cat says finding it first and pointing towards the back.

"Yep." I find it on the paper and tap it with my finger before going. We finally get back there and search the walls. There were so many boxes it wasn't even funny. Luckily the box we needed, we found on the 4th shelf from the bottom so it wasn't too high up.

"Got it." I say pulling it down. "It's been dusted off… Sam was here. The diary, the murders. All we're doing is following his footsteps. This is the next clue." I bring it over to the table that Cat was standing at and open the top. We dig though it until we find the official police report. Cat pulls it out and opens it.

She pulls out a picture of two burnt to the crisp bodies in a melted burnt car. "Joe and Vera…" She says showing me.

"Damn it Joe. Get busy with a dame and you get yourself cooked." I say in a 40's tone.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Cat rolls her eyes at what I said.

"Out 1947 murder and Sam's murder have to be connected by more than just a gun. Somewhere in here is that connection." We continue looking though when My phone rings this time.

I answer it. "Hello?"

"So, this Oswald guy is clear. But he says that Sam said this white mustang was following him for days before his murder. Whoever was following him was also at The Paddock Lounge the day before and the day he died."

"Ok thanks." I say hanging up the phone because I knew that was it.

Cat was pacing back and forth looking though the files when she stops dead in her tracks. "This statement was taken from Mrs. Violante, Joe Flynn's assistant, not he granddaughter. Kind of confusing but listen to this… _Mrs. Violante secretary to the victim Joe Flynn attested to bearing witness a conversation between both victims on the morning of June 24, 1947._" There's more hold on." I tell her looking for the rest.

_"I worked this from every angle, doll. There's no way we can crack Coppola's safe." Joes says._

_"Then how are we going to get it." Vera asks looking upset and confused._

_"Easy, you're going to walk right out the door with it tonight."_

_"How? It was hard enough shaking Coppola's hatchet men this morning. It's going to be that much harder shaking them when I'm wearing the necklace." She sighs._

_"It'll be a cake walk. Trust me, especially with our friend Jimmy Doyle on our side." Joe smiles._

_"Joe, who's Jimmy Doyle?" She looks up from her feet._

_"He's a prize fighter. He's taking on Sugar Ray Robinson for the multi-weight title. Every clover loving Irishmen, will be huddled around a table listening to the fight cheering him on. You're going to wait until a rousing part of the fight, and then you're going to excuse yourself. Whoever is assigned to be watching you is surely not going to be paying much attention. That's when you slip right out the back door where I'll be waiting for you." Joe smiles stepping closer to her._

_"Joe… that's perfect…" She says leaning in, just about to kiss him, when Mrs. Violante steps into the room._

_"No, it's crazy! What are you thinking Mr. Flynn? And I can tell you this Jane's no good." Joe's assistant says rudely._

_"Now what are you talking about? Look at me! I'm a new man, I'm a better man. I haven't even had a drink since I met Vera and if that not a miracle, than I don't know what is." He smiles at Vera._

_"You'd be better off with the booze than this chippy." The assistant says. "And what are you basing this relationship on? A robbery and a lie?" _

_"What lie? What's she talking about Joe?" Vera begs._

_"Well I guess it's time to come clean. Look doll… It's no coincidence that I met you in the club that night. I was hired to come find you, see. But I couldn't tell you who. It's just—" She cuts him off before he could finish._

_"Cut the corners, Joe. Who hired you?" She asks._

_"It was your sister." He says bluntly looking into her eyes. _

_"Joe… I don't have a sister." She looks scared._

"What happens next?" Cat says with her chin in the palm of her hand staring into my eyes.

"I don't know. That's the end of the statement." I tell her.

"Well if it wasn't her sister, than who was she?" Cat frowns.

"Sally set up the PI. It's a classic film twist!"

"Why?!" She cries.

"I don't know." I say even more interested.

"What was Sally up to?"

"I don't know." I reply. A smile formed on my face.

"Do you think she was connected to Coppola?" Cat smiles too.

"I don't know!" I had a smile on my face as big as a little kid's in a candy shop.

We heard back to the precinct with the box of evidence and the police report. Once we're out of the elevator Jones and Beck storm towards us.

"Yo, Cat." We both turn to look at Jones who was calling us.

"What's up?" I respond.

"Some officers caught the homeless guy who was squatting at The Paddock Lounge. A hot dog vender ID-ed him. He goes by the name of West Side Willy. I put a warrant out of the guy."

"Good that may be the break we needed." I tell him. Jones's phone rings and he excuses himself to answer it.

"Hey. Officers just got an alarm from the SRO room. Some guy driving a white mustang just broke into Sam's room and is still there." Cat and I nod and rush out to the cars with Jones and Beck. We throw on our bullet proof vests and hop in the car. As soon as we pull up we jump out of the cars. We can see a shadow moving around the room from the ground. We all go in, guns ready, and Jones kicks down the door.

"FBI, SHOW US YOU'RE HANDS!" Cat shouts. I've never seen her that loud.

"HAND UP! LET'S GO!" I shout with Jones and Beck behind me.

The man slowly turns around. My mouth drops when I see the man. He was exactly the same. It was scary. "Mike Coppola?" I say slowly with my gun still pointed at his chest.

**HEY! Guess what! 19 days until my birthday! Lol ok back to the story.**

**Cliff hanger at the end just to piss you all off. If you don't know me very well, that's what I do, just asks Ariana4Ever. I like holding things over people's heads and making fun of them haha… I'm a bad person… **

**Well I think I can finish this up in one more chapter but I don't know, I may need another. We'll see. Well How'd you like this one. I can promise you the ending is going to be great! That's why I wrote about this one. Ok and I forgot to add this in the last chapter but the journal entries, I took from Castle. (season 4 episode 14) this chap is based off of that episode. I though these two were really, really cool so I wanted to share them haha. I'll go back to some originals soon. But I'll definitely put more detail and though into them and give them some good endings. And yes I do have this story going somewhere. It's not just a bunch of chapters about cases, I can promise you that lol. Well I hope you liked it!**

**REVIEW! The more I get the better hahaha.**


	8. Chapter 8

We bring the man back to the station and sit him down in the interrogation room. Jones and Beck go and watch in the observation room and Cat and I go into the interrogation room.

"Mike Coppola III."Cat says holding the picture of his great grandfather up next to him.

"Dead ringer…" I say to myself but loud enough so everyone could hear. "Complete doppelganger."

"It's DNA guys, it's not a magic trick. I'm his grandson. Alright?" He pauses. "I'm sorry I broke in a door. I'll pay for the damages, it's no big deal, why am I still here?"

"Well breaking and entering is a bit of a big deal but we were just curious if you inherited anything else from your grandfather." I say still dumbfounded by the way he looked. I kept looking back at the picture and to him, it was actually scary.

"Yea, like one of his .38 revolvers that you used to kill Sam Calvin." Cat says staring at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, that didn't happen. Look Sam came to me only to his name was Nate Wilder. He said he was a biographer and he was looking to do some story about my grandfather. He promised not to focus on his underworld dealings, none of the bad stuff, just uh the good stuff. Like my granddad was part of the community." Mike explains.

"More like a killer of the community." I tell him.

"And so when he made his pitch, you wanting to rehabilitate you family name, you cooperated."

"Yea I gave him access to all granddad's old papers and everything was cool…. Till I found out the whole thing is a lie." He says straight up.

"And how exactly did you do that?" Cat stares him down. She looked pretty sexy when she did it but it always ended up cracking someone.

"There was this old singer at my granddad's club, Betsy Sinclair. Years ago she passed away. Well I went there to pay my respects and who do I see there but Nate Chatting up this old guy. He sees me and darts out the back. I'm like, what the hell is this all about, so I look in the guest book and see his name as Sam Calvin."

"And that was when you figured it out." I nod understanding all of this.

"He was just another low life treasure hunter, looking for that Blue Swan." Mike shakes his head in disgusts.

"And if anybody disserved this Blue Swan it would be you right?" I stop and wait for him to answer but he doesn't. "So you followed Sam and when he found it, you shot him." I tell.

"I didn't. I did not shoot him. Wait… Sam found it?" He says looking upset.

"Come on. You tell us." Cat replies.

"I. Don't. Know. I want there! I read in the newspaper that the guy was dead. I went back to his apartment to see what I could find."

"And?" I ask.

"And I didn't kill the guy! I was out at work. I leave for work at 5:30. I was there from 5:45 to at least 5 at night." He gives us his alibi. Cat walks towards the door and I follow. We walk to our desks and Cat picks up the phone.

"Hello." She says. After about a minute she sighs and hangs up. "Mike alibi checks out. He didn't kill Sam." She says as Beck walks into the room.

"Well that's alright. We caught a break. We finally found the homeless man, West Side Willy. The uniforms are bringing him in now." Beck tells us.

"Maybe that could shed some light on what happened to Sam." Cat suggests.

"And if that can't, maybe Jerry Maddox can." I say hanging up the phone I was just on and getting up and walking over to where Cat and Beck was.

"Jerry Maddox?" Cat asks looking confused.

"You remember how Mike told us that Sam went to Betsy Sinclair's funeral? Well I started to think why would he go?" I say.

"To do research." Cat says starting to understand.

"But research on whom? So I called the funeral parlor. It turns out Sam spent an awful lot of time with a friend of the deceased, name Jerry Maddox… Get this, Jerry was the old bar tender at The Paddock Lounge and probably the last living link to the Blue Swan."

"Nice job Robbie." Beck says turning around and walking away.

"Thanks." I call out as he walks away.

"Let's go check out this Jerry guy." Cat smiles.

"Can I drive?" I ask.

"I don't care."

We get to an apartment building on Lexington and go up to room 214B. Cat knocks a couple tomes and a younger man, around 28 answers the door. "Hello?" The man says.

"FBI. We're here to talk to Jerry Maddox." I tell the younger man in nurse scrubs.

"Jerry, There are some people here to talk to you." The man shouts as we walk in.

"Thank you Tom." An older man, maybe 85 says, who we presumed to be Jerry.

"Hi." Cat says and introduces herself.

Jerry and his wife introduce themselves. "I'm Jerry and this is my wife, Viola. What can we do for you?" He says showing us a chair to sit.

"We just have a few questions."

"Ok sure. What's up?" There was a raspy-ness to his voice.

"Am I hearing 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love'?" I ask him. Luis Armstrong was one hell of a performer and I was almost positive this was him.

"That's right kid. This is the best version of the tune too. But I figure you're not here to talk music." He chuckles.

"No we're here to investigate Sam Calvin's murder. We were wondering if you met him at Betsy Sinclair's funeral?" Cat asks showing him a picture.

"He was murdered?" Cat nods. "Poor Kid." The man sighs.

"Did he mention a necklace called the Blue Swan?" I ask.

"Oh sure. He was asking all kinds of questions. What it looked like, where it might be, stuff like that. But I was just a bartender back then, I wasn't much help." He explains to Cat and I.

"This might be an odd question, but do you remember back in 1947, when Joe Flynn and Vera McClain were murdered?" Cat ask.

"Of course. That was a big deal back then. Coppola owned the club back then and he killed them out of cold blood."

"Same year, Do you remember a girl name Sally Mohalland. She was a red head. In 1947 she would have been about 18." I give him some information to jog his memory.

"You know what, I think I know who you're talking about. Now that's back in 1946. I just got hired at The Paddock Lounge. Coppola wasn't dating Vera back then. He was going with a gal named Persila Campbell. Persila had a daughter, a red head named Sally. It's kinda sad what happened. Not long after Vera caught Coppola's eye, he cut Persila and Sally off. They said it was the curse of the Blue Swan. Persila killed herself with a handful of pills." Jerry explains.

"And Sally?" Cat asks intrigued.

"A couple months after Joe and Vera got wacked, Coppola died of a heart attack. The evening of his funeral, in walks Sally all dressed up, ordered a whiskey neat and slammed it back. She gave me this big old crocodile grin and said she was free. The she strutted on out the door and that's the last time I've ever saw her."Jerry finishes.

"It's a revenge story." Cat looks at me. "Sally blamed Vera for the death of her mother, so she plotted to take her down. Somehow she used the PI to do it. She must have been setting him up." I smile knowing more about the story.

"Yea but how does this have anything to do with our murder?" Cat asks me and I shrug. I had no clue, but it definitely had something to do with it.

On our way out my phone rings and I put it one speaker. "Ok so we talked to West Side Willy. He said he was bought out about a day or two before the murder by Oscar Dounam. He paid him $400 dollars to move his squat somewhere else. We brought Dounam in and he's in interrogation waiting for you." Jones tells and then hangs up the phone. After about 10 minutes we're both in interrogation staring at Dounam.

"We know you were at The Paddock Lounge the day the Sam Calvin was murdered. You paid off a homeless man so that you could have the place to yourself." Cat says walking around behind the man. He had white hair and glasses and he spoke very proper.

"I'm a millionaire treasure hunter. I stay in 5 star hotels when I'm out and I live in a mansion, why the hell would you think I would sleep in an abandoned lounge. And yet, you take the word of some crazy hobo." He say very proper and rudely.

"Pretty much." I say bluntly.

"I'd like to see you prove it." Dounam stares at me.

"Ok have it your way. We will see you at the sentencing hearing." Cat says picking up the file and closing it. She walks towards the door and I stand up to follow.

"Wait!" He says with a sigh. Before I turn around I give a small smile knowing we just broke him.

"I was there. I admit it. But I didn't kill him, like I said before Sam came to me and asked for my research on the Blue Swan." He starts.

"And you said no?" Cat asks.

"Of course I said no! I searched for the necklace for over 15 years and he just expected me to give him everything. That was 15 years of my life. I knew he had something I didn't. I knew he was closer than ever. I'm not going to give some scumbag 15 years of my life, so that he could find it in a month. I was just lying there wait. Sam went downstairs and when he returned he was holding it. The Blue Swan. Oh, it was beautiful… I was about to pounce when suddenly there was a rag put over my mouth. It smelled sweet… like chloroform." He explains and it makes me chuckle.

"Chloroform?" I ask laughing.

"I'm not lying. I swear. After that everything was black. When I awoke, Sam was dead on the gound with a bullet though his chest. I searched his body but it was gone. Whoever killed him took the Blue Swan with them. After that, I ran."

We get up and walk out knowing there was nothing else we could get. "God it was him." I say quietly.

"Yea but without a confession, our case is purely circumstantial. Let me see if I can get a warrant for Dounam's place." Cat picks up the phone and calls the ADA's office. "Hi this is Special Agent Cat Valentine from the FBI 12th precinct in NYC." She continues as I start to clear off the board. I take down all of the pictures and start to erase the writing on the white board when she is told to hold.

"Well it's kind of disappointing…I was hoping solving Sam's murder would give some answers to what happened to Joe and Vera." I sigh.

"Well we already know what happened. They were murdered." She explains.

"Well that's the obvious part. But what happened to Sally and why would she hire Joe…?" I question as Cat extends the line on the phone over to the evidence box and helps me pack up. She picks up one of the photo's with the phone still sitting in between her shoulder and her ear.

"I guess we'll never know…"

"No..." I say showing her the last picture of the Blue Swan. "Something is missing. Something we didn't see… _T-strap shoes and a county dress, I could tell that red head was a hick right off the cob._" I say repeating what I read in the PI's journal a few days before.

"What did you just say?" Cat asks looking at me with a weird smile.

"It was a line from the PI's journal." I explain.

"No. The thing about the t-strap shoes." She says quickly.

"T-strap. It's when the strap goes across the foot." I explain. She looks back at the phone receiver and to me. The person on the other end starts talking.

"Yea. Can you just call me back." She says hanging up. "Ok. Take a look at this photo." She says taking a picture off of the white board. It was a picture of the crime scene back in 1947. It was a half light alley with a burned car and two corpses in the back. She shows me a second picture - close up of the car. I look at it and she points.

"There's a shoe next to the car… And look at what type of shoe it is." She gets a bit excited. There was a shoe. It was behind the car and the only reason I could see it in this picture is because it was taken above the car.

"It's a t-strap… You don't think…" I stop knowing it couldn't be.

"If Vera was at the club that night, she'd be dressed in elegant club attire –" I cut her off.

"And heels! This isn't Vera… This is Sally!" I say knowing this story goes on.

"It cant be Sally. That bar tender… Jerry! He said that he saw her the night of Coppola's funeral… Unless…" She pauses for a second and takes a se closer. We were inches apart.

"He lied!" We say at the same time.

"But that was over half a century ago. Why would he have to lie?" She asks looking down a little bit.

"Cat… I just realized something." She looked back up at me. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." I look at her. She hold her breath for a second before breathing again.

"What?" She asks.

"That's what was playing when we went to Jerry's house." I explain.

"Right… right. He said that was the best version." She says looking into my eyes. She looked a bit caught off guard and a bit upset.

"It was Louis Armstrong's version. In Joe's diary, he says his favorite performer's name is Satchmo. What Satchmo's real name?" I ask her smiling like a kid in a candy store.

"Louis Armstrong!" She says like it was a quiz.

"Put it all together, and it's perfectly clear." I smile and lean in closer to her before backing away quickly. She smiles and grabs the keys off of her desk.

We knock on the door a couple of times and within seconds the older woman, Viola, answers the door. She smiles at us. "Oh, hello again!" She opens the door so half of her body was out.

"Hello Vera." Cat says and the older woman goes white. Jerry steps forward and peers out the door at us.

"And hello Joe." I say with a smirk. The smile on both of their faces fades away quickly and they open the door wider so we can come in. We step in and into the livingroom so the caretaker couldn't hear us.

"Well if it isn't Joe Flynn and Vera McClain back from the dead." I say staring at them dumbfounded by how they somehow pulled it off.

"Everything Ok in there?" The care taker shouts as he walks in to find us in the living room. He walks over to the china cabinet and starts busying himself.

"Everything's peachy, thanks Frankie." Vera says trying to hide the fear.

"What happened? Sam figure out the truth?" Cat asks Joe. "That you two were alive, that you two murdered two people back in '47 so you could disappear with the Blue Swan?" Cat finishes accusingly.

"So you lured him to the lounge and then you shot him." I say.

"You got it all wrong. Sam cornered me at Betsy's funeral and asked how I knew her, so I lied and told him I was a bartender." Joe tried to explain.

"Sam was clever. Too clever. He came here demanding to know where the Blue Swan was. He threatened to expose us." Vera tells more.

"He was like a dog after a bone. So we told him what he needed to know. We told him where it was, but we didn't kill him." Joe defends.

"Oh, come on guys. We know it was you. You used the same gun from the '47 murder's to kill Sam." I accuse. The Caretaker was fumbling around still near the china cabinet.

"Same gun. We keep that in the china cabinet draw." Vera says innocently. The next thing we knew Frankie, the caretaker was grabbing the gun but Cat was too fast. She already had her gun out and pointed at him before it was even out of the draw.

"Don't even think about it. Put the gun down." Cat walks over and takes it from him.

"Francis Benjamin Campbell! What have you done!" Vera exclaims.

"Campbell? It was your mother who sold the journal to Sam Calvin." I say realizing how this all worked.

"What diary?" Joe asks.

I look at him and smile, "Your diary."

"So you read it. And all this time you were looking for the necklace too…" Cat finishes my though.

"That's why I got this crap job. To find out what I needed to know from you old farts. For 6 months I worked to gain your trust. I planned everything to the dot but then this jerk walks in and just bullies the answer out of you?" Frankie shakes his head.

"So when you realized it was now or never you killed him?" Joe asks shaking his head in disgust.

"I only brought the gun as a precaution. I was just going to chloroform him. Then I found Dounam behind the bar. I pulled the gun and Sam reached for it… I didn't mean to." He says softly.

"Come on Frankie. You're under arrest." We bring him out and back to the precinct for holding. When we get there Cat and I stand by the white board cleaning it off for the last time.

"So this is what we found in Frankie's apartment." She says unwrapping a cloth to show blue and white diamonded swan.

"It's gorgeous!" I say carefully taking it.

"Yea but it's fake. We confirmed it with an appraiser. It's well crafted costume jewelry." Cat laughs.

"All this time and it was fake! That's screwed up." Cat shrugs and laughs again. "Or maybe it's a twist on a twist. Maybe the real Blue Swan was switched out for this one, years ago." I suggest.

"Well whatever happens, we still have one more case to close." She says grabbing the keys.

We walk into Joe and Vera's apartment and sit on the couch opposite of them. "So now we know that Frankie was the one who killed Sam Calvin. But we still have two unsolved murders from 1947. SallyMohalland and whoever else you put in that car."

Joe and Vera look at each other and I could see the real love in their eyes. "It's time you come clean on the night of June 24, 1947. The night you disappeared." I tell them.

With a sight Vera starts. "We were all huddled around the radio listening to the Sugar Ray Robinson and Jimmy Doyle prize fight and that's when I excused myself."

**(A/N ****_Italics are a flashback in Vera's POV as she explains what happened)_**

_"Moxy, I need to powder my nose." I tell the Irishmen._

_"Cant it wait a minute." He asks and I shake my head. He looks over towards Coppola and the boss nods. I walk off by myself and out the back door. Joe was standing right next to his car like he promised he would be.I jump into his arms and he pulls me in tight leaning in to kiss me._

_"Well aren't you a picture." Some guy says walking up a few feet away. His hair was slicked back and neatly combed. _

_"Who are you?" Joe asks._

_"I'm with her." He says as Sally steps forward with a gun in hand. It looked to be a .38 revolver._

_"Put them up." She says pointing the gun at me._

"The guy was Sally's husband. She only hired Joe to get me away from Coppola so she could exact her revenge.

_"Now you're going to suffer Vera, like my mother suffered." Sally tells me cocking the hammer on the gun._

_"Wait." He husband delays her. "Lemme get the ice first." He says stepping forward and grabbing me. He tried to pull the necklace off of me but Joe grabbed him and pulled the husband in front of him. Sally fires the guy aiming at Joe but he husband moved at just the wrong time._

_"Lennie!" She shouts seeing she shot him in the back. He drops to the ground and the light in his eyes goes out._

_I step forward and try to grab the gun from her. We fight and pull and yank and finally the gun is fired. Sally winces and lets go before dropping to her knees. _

_I run over to Joe with the gun in my hands. "Joe!" He takes it from me._

"We were hot as a pistol and we had two bodies on our hands. We had to do something!" Vera tells us reliving every moment of that night. "Joe had the plan."

_Joe picks up the bodies one at a time and puts them in his car. He takes the gasoline out from the back and dumps it all over the car inside and out. He outs the tank back into the car and strikes a match. We stand and watch as the whole car ignites. A horrible smell like burning flesh comes over us so we back away a few feet._

"No one would be looking for those two. We needed to disappear." Vera says. "Obviously we didn't disappear forever… So are you going to arrest us?" Vera looks at us both with tears in her eyes. Joe was staring at her rubbing small circles on the top of her hand with his thumb.

I look over at Cat and she turns to me. Cat looks back at them.

"Why would we do that? By what you're telling us, it was self-defense. And anyway, we're looking for a woman name Vera, not Viola and a PI named Joe, not a former bartender named Jerry." Cat says with a knowingly smile.

"Thank you… I don't know what I could do to thank you…" Joe says with a tear streaming down his face.

"I do." I speak up. "Answer 2 questions. One, if you had the Blue Swan, why didn't you take it, and two where has it been all this time."

"Well we were home free until doll face her had herself and epiphany." Joe explains.

_"This thing really is cursed." I say._

_"No, it's just rocks on a pretty broach." Joe explains._

_"No it's more than that. It's misery. Joe we can't." I say ripping it off my neck about to throw it into the flames of the lit car. Joe grabs my wrist lightly._

_"I've got no love for this thing. Just you. But I'll be damned if I let Coppola get his dirty little hand on this thing again." Joe wraps it up in a handkerchief and walks over to the wall across the alley way. There was a brick missing in the wall, so Joe sticks the wrapped Blue Swan into the hole and puts the brick back into place._

_"Let the bastard spend the rest of his life looking for his prized possession and not knowing its right under his nose." Joe smiles a bit before pulling Vera in for a long, drawn out, passionate, kiss._

"Cursed or not, did you ever think of going back for it?" Cat asks with her elbows oh her knees and her chin in the palm of her hand listening intensively.

"They don't get it Joe…" Vera says looking at him for help on how to explain this.

"We have 4 children, 7 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren and each other… What do we need a Blue Swan for?" Vera snuggles into Joe's chest.

Cat looks over at me with a loving smile and grabs my hand. I was caught off guard a little bit but I intertwine our fingers and smiled back at her.

**OK so that is it for this case. I think this is one of my favorites episodes, next to the one where there is secret tunnels involved and the first time the actually kiss… *cough cough* What?**

**Well Review and let me know what you think! Night y'all! lol**


End file.
